Scottie Pippen Is Still Mad About "The Last Dance"

It’s been over a year since ESPN aired The Last Dance, but it’s apparently still a sore subject for Scottie Pippen. Back in May 2020, it was reported that the Bulls legend was “beyond livid” about his portrayal in the docuseries, and if an excerpt from his new book is any indication, he’s still pretty salty about the whole thing.

Pippen released an excerpt from Unguarded, which is out Nov. 9, via GQ today. In it, he reveals that both Michael Jordan and John Paxson reached out to him after The Last Dance aired because they heard that he was upset. His main issue, according to the book, was the way the series painted Jordan as being solely responsible for the Bulls’ championship runs.

“Even in the second episode, which focused for a while on my difficult upbringing and unlikely path to the NBA, the narrative returned to MJ and his determination to win,” he wrote. “I was nothing more than a prop. His ‘best teammate of all time,’ he called me. He couldn’t have been more condescending if he tried. On second thought, I could believe my eyes. I spent a lot of time around the man. I knew what made him tick. How naïve I was to expect anything else.”

Pippen also suggested that Paxson and Jordan reached out to him solely to keep him quiet and revealed that Paxson even cried during their conversation about the docuseries.

“Was receiving texts from Michael and Paxson only two days apart a coincidence? I think not,” he wrote. “Both were aware of how angry I was about the doc. They were checking in to make sure I wouldn’t cause any trouble: to the Bulls, who still paid Paxson as an adviser; or to Michael’s legacy, always a major concern. He began to cry. Not knowing how to respond, I waited for him to stop. Why he was crying, I couldn’t be sure, and honestly, I didn’t care. Before long, our chat was, mercifully, over.”

You can read the full excerpt from Unguarded here.